The infant is Christa Dias’ greatest gift — and the reason she was fired from teaching jobs at
two Cincinnati Catholic schools.

“I’ve always wanted to have a baby,” said Dias as she held her wish-come-true in her arms in
their Withamsville home. “That’s why I became a teacher, because I love kids.

“I didn’t think it would be a problem.”

But it was for her employers, Holy Family and St. Lawrence schools in East Price Hill, who fired
Dias in October 2010 because the single woman was 5 1/2 months pregnant and wanted to discuss
maternity leave. She is still unemployed.

She sued in April, accusing the schools of pregnancy discrimination and breach of contract. Her
case, filed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, is on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court decides
issues in a similar case.

Dias was fired for being pregnant not from premarital sex, but as a result of artificial
insemination.

For Dias, the case is about what she believes is a rigid religious institution that refuses to
adapt to modern life, punishing her for celebrating life with birth.

For the schools that hired and fired Dias, the issue is less about her beliefs and more about
Dias keeping her legal promise.

“She has a right to her opinion, but she doesn’t have a right to violate her (employment)
contract,” said Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

That contract calls for her to act and comply with Catholic teachings, including not
participating in what the church calls the “grave immoral” act of artificial insemination.

Dias, 32, a Michigan native, isn’t Catholic but is Christian and attended Notre Dame College, a
Catholic school in South Euclid, Ohio, on a volleyball scholarship.

She came to this area in 2007 and began teaching at Holy Family in August 2008 and at St.
Lawrence in August 2009. She was the technology coordinator at both schools, with a combined annual
salary of $36,000.

Initially, the schools fired Dias for being single and pregnant. But when they were informed
that could violate state and federal anti-discrimination laws, they changed the reason for the
firing to being pregnant as a result of artificial insemination, which they said violated Catholic
teachings — and her employment contract with them.

The schools “have admitted that they had no other reason to terminate Ms. Dias’ employment,” her
attorneys wrote in legal filings in the case.

“I’m disappointed more than anything that I couldn’t continue my career because I wanted a
child,” said Dias, who declined to let her daughter’s name be used or face be photographed.

The schools’ attorneys countered that Dias’ choices are why she was fired.

“Above all, this is a case about a contract,” the schools’ lawyers wrote.

The schools say she is bound by her contract to act as a Catholic. “This is not the classic
pregnancy-discrimination case in which pretexts must be evaluated and discriminatory intent must be
divined,” the schools’ attorneys wrote.

Dias counters that the contract is invalid because it isn’t applied equally to men or enforced
on them. Her physical state made it obvious she was pregnant, but that’s not so for men who
participate in artificial insemination, she said.

Dias notes current law allows her to sue because the majority of her work as technology teacher
at the two schools has nothing to do with religion.

Despite the legal fight, Dias is convinced she made the right decision because her daughter is “
an amazing gift from God.”